For those of us who appreciate hand-made merchandise, especially jewelry, Etsy.com is a wonderful alternative to the pre-packed feel of many on-line stores. Along with jewelry, they sell all kind of hand-made merchandise such as house wares, clothing, purses, even books. If it can made, then you can pretty much find it for sale one this site.

One of the innovative elements of this site - as it's not the only on-line store for hand-made jewelry - is the way you can shop by color, place, time and material. For example, I typed in "blue earrings" in the search box and got:

These from mimosa.etsy.com




These from pamnkeith.etsy.com




These from jazzpatsytoo.etsy.com




And, of course, lots and lots more. One small criticism I do have for etsy.com is that not all of the pictures are that great, which is more to do with some of the sellers than the actual website since sellers upload their own images.